Living a cruelty-free lifestyle

So much suffering and barbarism nightly on the news. The innocent being murdered in the name of war. Children starving and dying of thirst.

Meanwhile more food and water is fed to the animals we eat than to the 1.3 billion starving people in the world. The world’s cattle alone consume enough food to feed 8.7 billion people – more than the entire human population. It takes 7kg of grain to roduce 1kg of beef. It takes between 50,000 and 100,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.

The world desperately needs Compassion and Connection for People * Planet * Animals. Make your connection … choose a cruelty-free lifestyle.

There is a distinct connection between cruelty towards animals and towards humans. Statistically many adults who violently abuse humans began in childhood by abusing animals. As violence towards animals, through increasingly cruel animal food production method worsens, the ramifications for future generations are dire.

This year nearly 5 million pigs, 8 million cows and roughly half a billion birds will be killed for their flesh in Australia. They are sensitive animals whose lives are often filled with fear and misery from the moment of their birth to their violent death at an abattoir. Animals are severely abused in abattoirs and on massive factory farms where they are denied the opportunity to engage in even their most basic natural behaviour.

Cows used for dairy products are routinely impregnated in order to keep their milk flowing for human consumption. Torn away from their mothers within hours of birth, male calves are kept for up to five days with their food restricted before being forced onto trucks for a frightening journey to slaughter.

Most pigs are confined to sheds for their entire lives, and mother pigs are often confined to crates that are so small that they are unable to turn around or interact with their babies. These crates are banned in the UK, Sweden and other countries yet are legal in Australia. Chickens and turkeys are crammed into huge windowless sheds by the tens of thousands, and egg-laying hens are packed so tightly into battery cages that they are unable to stretch their wings. Such cages have been banned or are being phased out in most EU member countries yet they are still used in Australia.

Farming causes the most suffering to the largest number of animals in Australia. They have no voice, cannot defend themselves and are legally classified as ‘property’.

These emotionally complex, intelligent beings may never see the sun, feel the earth under their feet, nurture their young, build a nest, roost, forage for food or socialise as Nature intended.

Baby animals are mutilated without pain relief – the tails, teeth and genitalia of piglets and the beaks of chicks are brutally clipped, as well as the horns, tails and testicles of calves – because it’s practical, cheap and lawful to do so.

Farming corporations engage in legalised cruelty in the name of higher profit and cheaper meat and eggs. Their activities are legitimised by State and Federal Departments of Primary Industry which operate with a stark conflict of interest; they are responsible for promoting the interests of animals but also the interests of very vocal and powerful agribusiness. As long as these government bodies oversee both animal protection and industry, meaningful reform will be very difficult to achieve. These industries operate with very little transparency.

The powerful myth that industrial food is cheap and affordable only survives because environmental, health and social costs are not added to the price of industrial food. When we calculate the real price, it is clear that far from being cheap, our current food production system is imposing staggering burdens on us and future generations.

Today very few animals roam freely on traditional farms. Most animals produced for food in Australia suffer behind the closed doors of large industrial facilities known as factory farms. They are treated like commodities in a production line, and their pain and distress is disregarded in the pursuit of profit. It is standard food industry practice to treat these intelligent beings like machines, denying them even sunlight or the feel of grass beneath their feet.

This is why we encourage a cruelty-free lifestyle and ask that you look at eliminating all animal products from your lifestyle and diet. Even animals from organic or ‘free range’ farms don’t march willingly to their deaths. They are dragged … wide-eyed and bellowing. Remember: all food animals end up at the same slaughterhouse. By eating a varied plant-based diet, you can easily get all the nutrients you need to lead a healthy active life. Besides being easy, delicious, economical, fun and healthy, following a plant-based diet transforms your fork into a powerful tool for compassion towards all beings, as well as for environmental production and restoration.

Albert Einstein, who was better known for his physics and math than for his interest in the living world once said …

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”